Sept. 11, 2001, attacks change airman's basic training experience

It all began when I enrolled in the U.S. Air Force on April 20, 2001. I was 17 years old.

My mom was scared to death when I told her I was going into the military; never in a million years would she have ever thought that I would enlist.

I left Aug. 15, 2001, for basic training in San Antonio. I enlisted into P.O.L. (petroleum, oils, and lubricants), which meant I would be refueling aircraft and anything else that needed gas. Basic training was six weeks and my technical training was 6 weeks.

Prior to my departure, I assured my mom that everything would be fine. I told her, “We haven’t been to war in 17 years, I’ll be fine.”

Little did I know what our country was in store for. I was in my fourth week of basic training On Sept. 11, 2001. Me and four other girls had marched over to clothing issue to have our skirts hemmed. We had been there maybe 15 minutes when someone came out and told us that one of the World Trade Center towers was hit by an airplane. In disbelief we all ran to the TV in the back thinking it was just a movie. We watched as a second plane hit the other tower.

Eventually, we learned of the attack on the Pentagon and the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. We were told to march back to our dormitory. When we returned, we were instructed by our technical instructor to go upstairs and sit in the dayroom. My fellow female airmen were in the dayroom watching TV, which was extremely out of the ordinary during basic training. Our instructor eventually came up to the dayroom. He explained to us that our brother flight’s (male airmen) instructor had been a firefighter in New York before enlisting in the military.

Needless to say, the remainder of basic training was very somber. I was thankful our families were able to come watch us graduate from basic training. My mom was there with a smile on her face and never once after that did she question me about serving my country.